Sunday, June 9, 2024

Mountainous Morning


 Alaska Cruise Trip Day 3 – Alaska

On Tuesday morning, we were finally traveling the waterways between the islands and archipelagos of Alaska, which run parallel to British Columbia, Canada.  According to GPS coordinates, this is a view of a portion of the east side of Baranof Island.  So far, the weather has been absolutely gorgeous.

Saturday, June 8, 2024

Rock City


 Alaska Cruise Trip Day 2 – At Sea (still)

The theater performance on Monday night was called Rock City.  It was a cross between a rock concert, Cirque du Soleil, and the cheesy 1980 movie Flash Gordon.  It was fun and entertaining.  

Friday, June 7, 2024

Trading Sun-tanning for Blankets


 Alaska Cruise Trip Day 2 – At Sea (still)

It was bright and sunny on the cruise, but the temperature hung right around 50ºF/10ºC most of the time. I personally love cool weather—just cool enough for a light jacket or hoodie. The ship's pool area provided throw blankets in addition to towels. As you can see in today's image, most people were using ship-provided blankets and/or wearing jackets. There are a few people hanging out in the hot tub, too. 

Thursday, June 6, 2024

Melting Pot



 

Alaska Cruise Trip Day 2 – At Sea


One of the things I enjoy about a cruise is the eclectic mix of people aboard. I'm suddenly thrust into the middle of a huge melting pot of people from around the world, each with their own languages, customs, and style of dress. 

The breakfast cafeteria was a madhouse with stations serving traditional breakfasts from several countries. People zipped and zagged from station to station with full plates, and I tried my best not to run into anyone.

More than once, I saw a large group, possibly from China or Japan, sitting together. They would gather finger food on several plates and then serve themselves family-style. One day, we were sitting at a table waiting for the changeover to lunch service.  The kitchen staff were busy loading up the stations with food and had plastic wrap on the outside to keep people from taking food early.  When that same large group came through and saw that there was a huge bowl of lychees at one of the stations, they went crazy.  They ripped through the plastic wrap and started grabbing lychees like it was a gold rush.  It took a while for the kitchen staff to get things back under control again.  The entertaining show was hilarious.

There were a variety of activities for the time we spent at sea. None of them interested us much, but it was fun to walk around, check things out, and take pictures.



Wednesday, June 5, 2024

All Aboard!




Alaska Cruise Trip Day 1 – Vancouver (still)

After we landed, we took an Uber to the embarkation building.  Three ships were boarding at once!  The line was pretty long, considering approximately 7,300 people were trying to board at the same time.  Surprisingly, the line moved fast.  If only the lines at the DMV would move that fast!